February 15, 2002 — This week, our favorite resource from our Resources and Downloads directories is Excel Software’s Linux, Macintosh, and Windows Tools, a slew of software models, design methods, and CASE tools.
According to Excel, their resources “promote an engineered approach to software development with integrated models, requirements traceability, code generation, and reengineering of code to design.”
The toolbox consists of:
- QuickHelp Linux 1.0
- QuickUML Linux 1.0
- QuickUML Windows 1.0
- QuickBugs Windows 1.0
- QuickCRC 2.0 Windows and Mac
- WinTranslator and MacTranslator 2.1
- MacA&D 7.3
- WinA&D 3.3
Released last week, QuickHelp is a development tool for creating and distributing online help for Linux applications. It consists of the QuickHelp Builder, for creating help systems, and the QuickHelp Viewer, for deploying these to end-users, according to the company. The help information resides in a single XML file distributed with the QuickHelp Viewer.
Released today, QuickUML Linux is an object-oriented design tool that provides integration and ease-of-use for a core set of UML models. It contains advanced features for multiple language projects, design namespaces, UML stereotype extensions, flexible color support, custom detail fields, and automated generation of class models from its dictionary.
QuickUML Windows, the older brother of the new Linux tool, handles the same chores on the Microsoft platform. It works with the WinTranslator reengineering tool to generate class models from C++, Java, or Delphi code.
QuickBugs Windows 1.0 helps you report, track, and resolve bugs, issues, changes, and new features involved in product development. Excel states that its attributes include “extreme ease-of-use and flexibility, a shared repository accessible to multiple users, multiple projects with assigned responsibilities, configurable access and privileges for users on each project.”
QuickCRC 2.0 helps developers designing object-oriented software with CRC (Class, Responsibilities and Collaborations) cards. It enables flexible card printing, visual on-screen editing, HTML or text reports, card relationships, card creation, namespaces, and XML file storage
WinA&D is a suite of resources for software engineering analysis, design, and data modeling. Its Developer edition features task models for multitask design and a Requirements window for requirements traceability and use case specifications. Its older sibling for Macintosh is similarly XML-enabled. Both allow object-oriented designs to be generated as Java, C++, or Delphi code.
WinTranslator can be used to generate class models, CRC cards, structure charts, or data models from code. WinTranslator processes code files and outputs a text file of design information that can be imported into WinA&D, QuickUML, or QuickCRC. Its Mac twin provides the same services for the alternate platform.
They may be a little pricey (QuickUML Linux, for instance, runs US$495 — inexpensive demo versions are available), but if these sound like the right tools for the job you’re working on, it would be worth your while to check them out.
If you’ve got a cool resource or download in the field of software development you’d like to share with the world, visit our user submission pages and fill out the simple forms. We’ll review them, and post them quickly to our directories. Plus, once a week, we’ll pick a particularly useful resource and highlight it for all our readers to enjoy.
